The present study was an attempt to show that the behavioral technique of desensitization is superior to insight-oriented psychotherapy in terms of not only behavior change for individuals undergoing desensitization but in terms of case of acquisition to novice therapists who have virtually no clinical experience.

The study was undertaken to investigate if a course of instruction, utilizing specific procedures, could be employed to enhance performance on an aptitude test. A punishment procedure involving the removal of a positive reinforcer was instituted within a classroom setting.

This study was an objective investigation of an operant program in behavior modification using tangible reinforoers, which was conducted in two Special Education classes in the Denton Independent School District.

This study is designed to determine if people have a particular stimulus or perceptual preference which is congruent with their personality. Seventy-six male and female college students completed three personality tests, consisting of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Revised Art Scale of the Welsh Figure Preference Test, and the Gough Adjective Check List. A preference for simplicity or complexity in designs for four different personality dimensions was examined. The personality dimension of introversion and extroversion was looked at in particular.

This study considers the relationship between scores on the "Experimental Draw-A-Group Projective Technique for Measuring Interpersonal Responsivenesss" (DAG), and self-concept as indicated by scores on the Tennessee Self Concept Scale (TSCS). The study assumes a significantly positive relationship between interpersonal responsiveness and self-concept. The study further seeks to establish sound empirical data to justify the use of the DAG scale in the research of self-concept.

The remedial effects of specific techniques outlined by the Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception were studied in two groups of children diagnosed as dyslexic: a treatment group of thirty, and a control group of thirty who were not available for immediate treatment. Initial testing indicated that all children utilized in the study were dyslexic, and after a treatment period of three months, post-testing was administered to both groups.

Differences in college student's psychological well-being, extrapunitiveness, and intropunitiveness were related to the presence or absence of maltreatment during childhood years, and its acknowledgement by the student. Subjects were 56 male and 85 female undergraduate students at the University of North Texas. Subjects were given structural scale v.3 of the California Psychological Inventory (CPI), the Extrapunitive (E), and Intropunitive (I) indices of the Hostility-Direction of Hostility Questionnaire (HDHQ), and the Physical Punishment scale (PP-scale) of the Assessing Environments Questionnaire (AEIII). Results indicate no significant differences in psychological well-being, extrapunitiveness, or intropunitiveness, which would be explained by the presence of maltreatment or its acknowledgement.

Depression received much attention in the professional literature as a stimulus both for experimental as well as applied research. It continued to be the subject of much controversy in respect to its definition, identification, and classification. Attempts were made to objectify the assessment of depression using self-report scales to tap various aspects though to be related to its etiology as well as its symptomology. Two of the most popular and reportedly well-validated self-report scales identified in the literature for determining and quantifying depressive symptoms were the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck) and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (Zung).The present study was designed to determine if there were factors in common between the Beck and the Zung scales and, in addition, to test whether these factors would differentiate subjects by sex class membership, diagnostic category, and by some linear combination of biographical or life-history information. The major purpose was the identification of outstanding charactersitics of depression predicted from biographical data and the determination of the relationship of these data to self-rating psychometric measures of depression. This study makes it clear that the Beck and Zung scales are measuring different aspects of depression and thus are likely based on separate constructs. The need …

Using a strong invariance structural equation modeling approach, the current study explored the role of parental styles, along with age and IQ, on the expression of psychopathic personality facets in a large (N = 734) male sample of Hispanic and non-Hispanic offenders. Multiple group confirmatory factor analyses revealed evidence of strong invariance across ethnic groups for the psychopathy and parenting scales (CFI = .95; RMSEA .03). Person-centered analyses examining psychopathic versus non-psychopathic cases demonstrated that the former reported greater levels of dysfunctional parenting, particularly abuse. Structural equation modeling results highlighted differential relationships between the variables of interest as a function of race/ethnicity.

Psychopaths have long been characterized as having a remarkable disregard for the truth, to the extent that deceit is often regarded as a defining characteristic of the syndrome. Scholars described heightened concerns about how psychopaths’ deceitful and manipulative nature could significantly obstruct evaluations of psychopathy. The accurate evaluation of psychopathy is very important in forensic and correctional settings, and in such issues as risk assessment or dangerousness. Although the PCL-R is considered the quasi-gold standard when it comes to evaluating psychopathy, self-report measures have become more widely available and researched. Very few studies specifically evaluated response styles and self-report psychopathy measures despite the significant concerns regarding psychopathy and deception. The current study evaluated the ability of inmates with different levels of psychopathy to successfully engage in positive impression management on the SRP-4, LSRP, and PPI-R. Utilizing a repeated-measures, within-subjects design, 78 male inmates completed the study under genuine and simulation conditions. Overall, inmates were able to significantly lower their scores on all three self-report measures and achieved scores equivalent to and even lower than college and community samples. Inmates with higher levels of psychopathy were able to achieve larger decreases in scores on the PPI-R and on several scales for …

The purpose of the current study was to examine neuropsychological functioning in patients with bipolar disorder (BD) with psychotic features. Data from a large, epidemiological study of patients with first-episode psychosis was used to examine verbal learning and working memory 10 years after onset of psychosis in patients with BD relative to patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and patients with psychotic major depressive disorder (MDD). Cross-sectional comparisons of verbal learning and working memory at the 10-year follow-up mirrored findings of relative performance at the 2-year follow-up (Mojtabai, 2000), as patients with SZ performed significantly worse than patients with psychotic affective disorders. When FEP patients' cognitive performance was examined longitudinally, all groups showed non-significant decline over time, with no significant diagnostic group differences after accounting for current symptoms. More frequent hospitalizations and longer treatment with antipsychotics were associated with poorer performance on cognitive testing 10 years after illness onset, but these associations disappeared when controlling baseline cognitive performance. Within the BD sample, current positive and negative psychotic symptoms were associated with poorer performance on cognitive testing. After controlling for baseline cognitive performance, markers of clinical course were unrelated to cognitive performance, consistent with existing literature on longitudinal cognitive functioning in patients with …

This study analyzed the relationship between the OF functioning of 100 incarcerated male offenders and their psychopathy symptoms. The study's rejected hypothesis had predicted a significant relationship between measures of OF functioning and the Defective Affective Experience (DAE) and Impulsive and Irresponsible Behavioral Style (IIB) factors of the Cooke and Michie (2001) three-factor model of psychopathy. Regression analysis failed to demonstrate a relationship between OF functioning and the DAE and IIB factors. Group differences on OF functioning were not demonstrated between participants in the upper and lower quartiles of a summed DAE and IIB factor score. A general role for OF functioning in criminal behavior was suggested as two OF measures accounted for 14.9% of the variance of criminal convictions.

Two important developments are addressed by this dissertation. First, the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles-Simplified Version (PICTS-SV) was examined in relation to the original PICTS. Second, the vulnerability of the PICTS-SV to intentional risk minimization (RM) was tested. Two separate studies recruited a total of 150 offenders from a court-mandated residential substance use treatment facility. As expected, Study I established the PICTS-SV's good concurrent validity with the PICTS, especially at the broad composite scale level. For Study II, criminal thinking failed to show the anticipated convergence with HCR-20 risk classifications or forensic correlates. Potential explanations, including a restricted range of risk levels in this sample, are discussed. As a particular strength, the findings highlight that the PICTS-SV, in contrast to many risk measures, displays robust resistance to RM distortion, although revisions to its Df-r validity scale are warranted. These results overall demonstrate strong evidence of the PICTS-SV's utility for assessing a dynamic criminogenic need to inform effective interventions and accurate risk determinations.

Within the discipline of sociology human olfaction is rich with social significance yet remains a poorly charted frontier. Therefore, the following discourse is aimed toward the development of a foundation for the sociological study of olfaction. It is formed by the dual goals of unearthing the social history of olfaction and of providing a viable sociological account of the manner in which smells affect human ontology. From these goals arise the following research questions: (1) Have the meaning and social relevance of odors and the olfactory sensorium changed throughout different periods of history?; (2) How have those in the lineage of eminent sociological thinkers addressed the phenomenon of human olfaction during these periods?; and (3) What is the process by which aromatic stimuli are transformed from simple chemical compounds, drifting in the atmosphere, into sensations in a sensory field and then on to perceived objects, to subjects of judgment and interpretation, and finally to bases of knowledge which form and continually reform individuals in the world? The weaving of the sociohistorical tapestry of smell is undertaken to provide examples from thousands of years lived experiences as to the fluid and sociologically complex nature of individuals' olfactory senses. This historical information …